When G-d Checks Out

Here’s the scenario: G-d has liberated the Israelites and gave them the Torah on Mount Sinai. The sound and light show is stupendous. In our weekly Torah portion, Mishpatim, Moses begins to teach the laws to the people, starting with the sharp restrictions on slavery to maintaining a kosher diet.

And then G-d says He’s checking out.

“I am going to send an angel before you to protect you on the way, and to bring you to the place that I have designated.” [Exodus 23: 20]

Moses is stunned. After all this, G-d is moving on and leaving an angel in charge? What’s going on?

Who was this angel appointed the guardian of Israel? The Talmud identifies the angel as Metatron, said to have saved the patriarchs centuries earlier. Metatron was described as the scribe of G-d as well as Enoch, the righteous man whose life was cut short just before the Great Flood.

Others identify G-d’s emissary as Michael, one of four angels posted around the divine throne. Michael is described as a savior of the righteous, whether Daniel, hurled into the pit of lions, or Hananya, Mishael and Azaria, sentenced to burn to death.

“Be watchful in his presence. Heed his voice and do not rebel against him, for he will not overlook your iniquity, since My Name is with him.” [Exodus 23: 21]

Moses said no. He saw this as a separation of G-d from His people. Moses knew that an angel, regardless of his prominence, would be merely an emissary. The angel would have no power to show mercy on the Jews, let alone forgive them for their sins. And it was clear to Moses that his people would soon trip, stumble and fall.

It was the prophet’s last stand. Moses told G-d that the Jewish people would not take one more step in the desert toward Canaan without the divine presence. The Almighty agreed and pledged not to leave His people during the life of Moses.

But G-d’s emissary would return after Moses died. The angel would confront Joshua outside Jericho and rebuke the leader for not bringing the daily sacrifice and not teaching Torah during the break in the fighting. Here Metatron is known as “the minister of war,” guiding Israel on how to conquer Canaan.

For centuries, the sages debated whether Metatron was a gift to Israel or marked the departure of G-d. In the Zohar, Rebbe Abba justifies Moses’ objection and sees the appointment of the angel as a separation from G-d. But Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai insists that the angel was meant only to guard Israel and not distance the people from the Almighty.

“For My angel will go before you and bring you to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I will annihilate them.” [Exodus 23: 23]

The debate among the sages can be resolved simply by asking who is separating from whom. Is G-d separating from Israel? The consensus is that is impossible. But Israel is shown to have separated from G-d, whether during the sin of the Golden Calf, when the Almighty is replaced with an idol, or during subsequent falls from grace.

When Israel separates from G-d then reality becomes skewed — black is white, war is peace, tragedy is victory. Rabbi Shmuel Horowitz, known as Rav Shmelka from Nickelsburg, today the Czech town of Mikulov, refers to the fog of sin in his commentary on Scriptures. The 18th Century rabbi, regarded as a giant of Torah and Hasidic thought, talks about the Ziphites, a desert clan aligned with King Saul. The Zipihites, based around Ein Gedi in Judea, informed Saul of the whereabouts of David, anointed as the next king and now a fugitive pursued by the discredited monarch. It’s probable that the Ziphites didn’t even know David, rather their betrayal marked an opportunity to receive a reward from Saul.

“Their worlds,” Rav Shmelka writes of the Ziphites, “are chaotic in that they distort everything and make everything look pretty.”

At the point when Israel lies to itself that they don’t need G-d then the divine presence appears to drift away. Instead, Metatron or Michael is in charge. Either is assigned to protect the truly righteous, but the masses remain in the grip of their enemies. The ordinary Jew is lost, confused and harassed. His vision is blurry; his hearing is strained. His legs move slowly. He knows something is terribly wrong but cannot figure out what and why.

Mishpatim is chockful of laws — 43 to be exact. But during the last third of the Torah portion G-d talks to the Jewish people and their leadership. The divine message is that these laws are not mystic or symbolic, rather meant to be observed in daily life. Observance means the people will remain with G-d; rejection means the divine spirit moves on, replaced by an angel who doesn’t tolerate sin and certainly can’t forgive it.

That’s our choice.